A terrific player who competed for Greece at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and helped the host country reach the Quarter-Finals, the 1.80m shooting guard then showed up for national team duty in the summers that followed as the Greeks cemented their status as the dangerous outsider.

Everyone knows Maltsi's finest hour was in Latvia at the EuroBasket Women three summers ago in Latvia, when she did her best imitation of a superhero and led the Greeks to their best-ever finish of fifth place.

That clinched a spot for the Greeks at the World Championship for the first time.

It was an improbable run led by Maltsi, who averaged 22.6 points per game and often scored in dramatic fashion.

She then provided much of the inspiration for Greece as they first knocked off Slovakia and then shocked Italy with a second-half comeback and won 60-56, a result that put the Greeks in the 2010 World Championship.

Maltsi had 26 points in that triumph.

It was impossible to utter the words women's basketball in the year that followed and not think about Maltsi, who had done a Greek dance on the center of the Riga Arena court with her teammates after the win over the Italians.

"That was a great, great experience and if I see it from the outside, I think it was the best of my career," Maltsi said on Monday.

Right now, Maltsi is back home in Greece, spending time with her family and resting after a long season in Poland with CCC Polkowice.

Next year, she will play professionally in Turkey.

Where Maltsi will not be this summer is with her national team when it competes in the Qualification Round for EuroBasket 2013 in France.

When asked if she was calling an end to her famous national team career, Maltsi answered: "I didn't announce my retirement but I just told them (Greek Basketball Federation) I'm not going to play this summer. But it's possible I may not play next year as well.

"For me, it was too long until July 14, this qualification, and I decided I didn't want to participate.

"I didn't tell them I was done with the national team and I wouldn't play anymore.